EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

In the letter, which was also signed by Dombrovskis, the LHF points out that the right to organize the 2006 World Championships in Latvia was an excellent and positive challenge, and a great opportunity to show that Latvia is capable of organizing such a high-level international event. ''Taking into account the experience Latvia gained from organizing the tournament, I would like to offer my personal support to the LHF's efforts to bring the World Championships back to Latvia in 2018,'' the prime minister said in the letter.

The LHF points out that ice hockey is one of the most popular sports in Latvia, and also mentioned the fact that Latvia will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2018.

As reported, this past September, Latvia and Denmark officially submitted separate bids to organize the 2018 Ice Hockey World Championships.

Both of these countries submitted a joint bid to organize the 2017 Ice Hockey World Championships earlier this year, but lost out to the joint German and French bid.

Denmark, which is currently ranked 12th in the world and has played in the Top Division every year since 2003, has never hosted the World Championships.

In the Danish bid, the 12,000-seat ''Copenhagen Arena'' in the country’s capital, which is expected to open in 2015 and was part of the 2017 bid, is proposed as the main venue and the 12,500-seat ''Boxen Arena'' in Herning that opened in 2010 as the secondary arena.

Latvia, ranked 11th and famous for its fans travelling around the world to support their national team, has hosted the World Championships once in 2006 and has been playing in the Top Division since 1997.

Same as in 2006, Latvia proposes to host the World Championships in two venues in its capital of Riga, one of them being ''Arena Riga''.

The 2014 IIHF Annual Congress, which will be held May 22-24, 2014 in Minsk, during the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, will vote on the allocation of the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships.